MEMBER DIARY

Jim Deakin, AZ citizen candidate for US Senate hits it out of the park in debate against McCain & hayworth

Image that you first at bat in professional baseball is in the world series facing a Cy Young award winning pitcher with a MVP catcher standing behind you. That does not even come close to the pressure faced by Jim Deakin in the Senate debates with sitting Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain and former Congressman and professional media man JD Hayworth. I cannot even begin to imagine being in that spot going toe to toe with 40 years of entrenched political experience used to spinning questions selecting between memorized talking points to give non-answers. Jim Deakin, the citizen candidate, did so. With one, just one, televised debate under his belt Jim went head to head with Senator McCain and Congressman Hayworth and more than held his own in tonight’s debate. He demonstrated the wisdom of our founding fathers in their desire to have citizen legislators, not nearly ennobled politicians, representing the people in our constitutional republic. People who deal in the real world, not DC, know how it works and what works on main street and to whom The Constitution is not a buzz word, the hottest poll tested catch phrase. It is in their blood and it is their foundation.

I wrote on many blogs that I had not yet announced who I would endorse as a PC, who I would get out the vote for. Continuance of Senator McCain progressivism while running every 6 years as conservative was unacceptable. I have lived in AZ throughout Congressman Hayworth’s career and always felt he did best as a sports caster. I could not see any difference between the two except Senator McCain is rarely eliquent and Congressman Hayworth takes 30 minutes to make a brief comment. I saw no difference between the two incumbents and their combined 40 years of political mismanagement. The question I had was could a citizen candidate step up to the plate and play at the level. Jim Deakin hit it out of the park this evening in the Tucson debate and reaffirmed my sometimes challenged belief in the ability of Americans to step up to daunting challenges. Jim earned my endorsement tonight and deserves serious consideration by all those of us who find the insanity of DC and the mismanagement of our great nation unacceptable.